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Stephen King's next book is 1000+ pages and based on the Simpsons movie

post #1 of 221
Thread Starter 
From King's website:

"On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mills, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out."

post #2 of 221
1000+ pages?! How the hell can Mick Garris make that into a mini-series?

King said it deals with some of the issues that The Stand dealt with so I'm on board. I'm actually really looking forward to this.
post #3 of 221
You are? Really?
Have you read anything he has written in the last, I don't know, ten years?
post #4 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by OCallaghan View Post
You are? Really?
Have you read anything he has written in the last, I don't know, ten years?
Yeah and while nothing has blown me away (I thought Bachman's Blaze was the best honestly), I gotta admit that this premise sounds exciting. He's probably just suckering me in by mentioning The Stand but still.
post #5 of 221
'The Simpson's Movie'?...sounds more like Robert R. McCammon's "Stinger", to me...just without the alien bounty-hunter.
post #6 of 221
I haven't touched a King novel in ages, but I gotta admit...that sounds pretty cool.
post #7 of 221
Sounds fun, although his last good book was 'Bag of Bones'.

I enjoyed 'Cell' though. Not a classic, but a fun read.
post #8 of 221
The Stand or The Langoliers or The Mist or Needful Things.
Take your pick.
post #9 of 221
Interesting? Yeah.

1000 pages worth of interesting? No.
post #10 of 221
Since you cats are talkin' King: what would be *the* book to start out with ?

As to not sway your opinion one way or another, I must confess to having paid to see 'Thinner' in the theater when it came out.
post #11 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rando View Post
Since you cats are talkin' King: what would be *the* book to start out with ?
THE DEAD ZONE. I still think it's probably his best-written book from his earlier years. As for his later output, BAG OF BONES is probably the last great book King's written.

I'm intrigued by this new book, but it certainly does sound like THE SIMPSONS MOVIE.
post #12 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan "Nordling" Cerny View Post
THE DEAD ZONE. I still think it's probably his best-written book from his earlier years. As for his later output, BAG OF BONES is probably the last great book King's written.

I'm intrigued by this new book, but it certainly does sound like THE SIMPSONS MOVIE.
And somehow the fucking Crimson King will be involved.

The Dead Zone is definitely the best "starter" King book, if not his best book overall.
post #13 of 221
Retarded premise.

Skip everything after Misery.
post #14 of 221
After reading Just After Sunset, I'm wary of stretching any of King's ideas out to 1,000 pages. An excercise bike that turns your metabolism into blue collar workers who try to kill you? Escape from a Port-A-Potty? N was okay, but other than that? Ugh.

Maybe I'll just re-read Skeleton Crew and Graveyard Shift.


EDIT: Why the fuck hasn't anyone made a movie out of Stinger? I read that book 20 years ago and even then I couldn't believe it hadn't been filmed yet.
post #15 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rando View Post
Since you cats are talkin' King: what would be *the* book to start out with ?
"Dead Zone" is a great call, but I'd also suggest "Salems' Lot" or "The Shining". "Salems' Lot" is a great inversion of "Dracula". Whereas "Dracula" was a very much Victorian novel where the forces of science and enlightenment use modern resources to defeat the occult. "Salems' Lot" drops the occult into modern America and shows that those very forces of science and enlightenment have made us incapable of dealing with the supernatural. Very cool stuff. "The Shining" is just a brilliant haunted house story... on a par with Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House". If you enjoy those, I'd recommend "It" (which is my personal favorite). Hell, maybe your best best is to start with one of his two early short story collections--"Graveyard Shift" and "Skeleton Crew"--and see if King's work catches your fancy.

As for the new book: Goddamnit, I'm going to read it and inevitably be disappointed. Stephen King, why can't I quit you?
post #16 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan "Nordling" Cerny View Post
I'm intrigued by this new book, but it certainly does sound like THE SIMPSONS MOVIE.
We'll know for sure if it at any point one the characters develops a giant disc to block out the sun.
post #17 of 221
'The Shining', 'The Stand', 'Night Shift', and 'The Dead Zone' are all good places to start. My favorite book of his is 'The Bachman Books', though; 'The Long Walk', from that book, is probably my favorite story from King.
post #18 of 221
The title is just Under the Dome.
post #19 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Judas Booth View Post
'The Shining', 'The Stand', 'Night Shift', and 'The Dead Zone' are all good places to start. My favorite book of his is 'The Bachman Books', though; 'The Long Walk', from that book, is probably my favorite story from King.
Same here. Love The Long Walk. It definitely has that Angry Young Man nihilism going for it (I think it was written in the 70's) that I occasionally enjoy. Plus, it's just a great premise.

Anyone heard any recent news on Darabont's adaptation of this? As much as I loved The Mist, I'm not entirely sure this would work as a film.
post #20 of 221
I don't think that I could endure a two hour movie of 'The Long Walk'. I'd be an absolute wreck by the end of it.
post #21 of 221
I remember doing a project in grade school where the premise of his book was the central premise of the project: what would you do if your town was separated from the rest of the world by a clear dome? How would you change things so that people would be able to survive an unknown length of time in the dome? I think I got a "A" on that project, and I am VERY sure King is ripping it off to make this book, that fucker.

King is hit and miss with me. I grew up reading Carrie, Firestarter, Cujo, The Dead Zone, Christine, etc. etc. and I have lots of good nostalgic memories of having done so. Whether or not they would hold up now as still being good I don't know. I really enjoyed the first few Dark Tower books until he introduced the Walking Dude into that series. The Talisman was amazing, but I think that was magic born out of the collaboration with Straub more than anything.

I HATED The Stand. Maybe it's because I have ever only read the super expanded anniversary edition of the book (shown here), but it lost me when it started to transform into juvenile bible-story bullshit after the first act. I always wonder if he could have made a decent end-of-the-world book without resorting to the use of any supernatural/Walking Dude-related elements though, which I had hoped The Stand would have been.

If I had to pick a favorite? Probably Firestarter or Christine. His book On Writing is a fantastic read as well!
post #22 of 221
Haha a character's name is Shumway. Wonder if she eats cats.


PLEASE STOP WRITING, STEPHEN KING.
post #23 of 221
These days, reading King is like doing cocaine. When it's over you realize it wasn't worth the money, time and energy you invested in it, yet you're 90% sure you'll do it all over again.

(sigh) I'll read it, dammit.
post #24 of 221
I am a King whore and confess eventually I will read this. The premise is interesting, though not original.

Right now I am on a Pratchett / Discworld kick so I will be busy for a while.
post #25 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ludwig View Post
II HATED The Stand.
*Gasp! Splutter!*

I don't think I've EVER heard anyone say this before.

But I agree w/ Nekkerbee. I'll read this, I'm sure, & inevitably be disappointed. It's a foregone conclusion.
post #26 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty View Post
And somehow the fucking Crimson King will be involved.
Ha, I'm reading Insomnia right now, probably my least favorite King book of the ones I've read.

I really liked Dreamcatcher and Desperation until I saw the movies... made me wonder what I liked about them in the first place.

The movie version of Depseration was just awful and the terrible British accent of the "grey man" in Dreamcatcher was like nails on a chalkboard.

I would say Misery and Night Shift were the books that I liked the most.
post #27 of 221
Long Walk and the first two short story collections. King in his prime wrote short fiction as well as anyone ever has, but when he ceased having to sell stories to pay his light bill, things began a steady march downhill.
post #28 of 221
This thread is like a Stephen King book.
post #29 of 221
Dead Zone is his best written piece. Bar none. The Stand and IT are epic in scope and great stories, but Dead Zone just unbearably tragic and wonderfully written.

Cell pissed me off only because it had such a great beginning and it really looked like we would finally be getting Stephen King's zombie story. Then he threw in telekinesis and telepathy and whole swaths of retardation. That opening also contains my favorite bit when the comic book artist uses his portfolio to block a knife that's about to stab him, and when the knife goes through his artwork, he "hears" all the character he has drawn scream, and that just angers him to the point of fighting back...it's written a lot better than I summed up here, but its touches like that that keep me coming back to King no matter how much he disappoints me. Damn him.

N. was a terrifically scary online miniseries. Mute was also great, read that in a Playboy magazine.
post #30 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark View Post
This thread is like a Stephen King book.
Yeah?!? Well, you are the one who is like a Stephen King book. So, there!

(and still better than "Summer of Night")
post #31 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark View Post
This thread is like a Stephen King book.
Your face is like a Stephen King book; bland, occasionally entertaining, and way too much Randall Flagg for my liking.
post #32 of 221
This sounds woefully retarded.

Don't get me wrong, I love Stephen King, but the premise for this book is ridiculous. A giant invisible dome? Never mind the fact that unless there is A LOT more to the plot I don't see how he can continue such a lame idea for a thousand pages, but hasn't this idea been done to death? Let me guess, people who disliked each other before the dome will grow together and unite against whatever evil has cut them off from the rest of the world, there will probably be a retarded or deaf kid who overcomes their greatest fears, and the ending will be the biggest fucking let down in the world.

At this point in his career, a Stephen King novel is like a really really really long game of Mad Libs. The structure is there and he just fills in ridiculous shit and craps out a book. That being said, I guarantee that I'll read this thing. Goddammit.
post #33 of 221
I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to Dean R Koontz.
post #34 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark View Post
I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to Dean R Koontz.
Well, that's just a low blow.

*takes ball and goes home*
post #35 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobClark View Post
I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to Dean R Koontz.
Fuck, there need to be some kind of rule against talking about Dean Koontz. I still contend that the best thing Family Guy ever did was invoke his name that one time, and even then it was bittersweet.
post #36 of 221
Yeah, that's just harsh.
post #37 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mezz View Post
At this point in his career, a Stephen King novel is like a really really really long game of Mad Libs. The structure is there and he just fills in ridiculous shit and craps out a book.
At one point I was convinced that "Stephen King" was in fact a sufficiently advanced novel writing AI. In fact, I was VERY sure the Cornficker virus was invoked so that he/it could evolve into a workable digital prototype of the proverbial "1000 monkeys at 1000 typewriters". This novel must be the result of all of those infected computers banging together millions of lines of prose. The reason it's about a dome was because 10% of those computers had an illegal copy of the Simpsons movie on them.
post #38 of 221
Thread Starter 
I was really intrigued by a new epic length King book similar to The Stand, but I can't get excited about this premise, at all. Maybe if he goes heavy into the metaphysical with the explanation for the Dome, something along the lines of the existential Chud battle in It, it'll have something, but if it's what I anticipate, this could be a rough one for me.
post #39 of 221
True story: I've never had Dean Koontz recommended to me in anything but a Southern accent.
post #40 of 221
You can't say Dean Koontz without slipping into a southern accent, though.
post #41 of 221
Thread Starter 
There were a couple Dean Koontz books I liked, when I was 11. Didn't they get all Jesus-y?
post #42 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arjen Rudd View Post
Didn't they get all Jesus-y?
As in: "Jesus, what a terrible book!"
post #43 of 221
Didn't Koontz write a "remake novel" of Frankenstein? That seemed odd.
post #44 of 221
From Wikipedia:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiki
Under the Dome is an upcoming novel by Stephen King, scheduled to be released on November 10, 2009. It is a rewrite of a novel King attempted writing twice in the 1980s, under the titles The Cannibals and Under the Dome. As King stated on his official site, these two unfinished works "were two very different attempts to utilize the same idea, which concerns itself with how people behave when they are cut off from the society they've always belonged to. Also, my memory of The Cannibals is that it, like Needful Things, was a kind of social comedy. The new Under the Dome is played dead straight." ... King described the novel as "very, very long", saying "I tried this once before when I was a lot younger and the project was just too big for me". King has stated the novel is twice as long as his most recent, Duma Key, at "over 1,500 pages in manuscript", and "deals with some of the same issues that The Stand does, but in a more allegorical way".
post #45 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by OCallaghan View Post
You are? Really?
Have you read anything he has written in the last, I don't know, ten years?
Duma Key was a pretty good read. King's been on sort of an upswing lately. I'll be reading this.
post #46 of 221
Quote:
Originally Posted by shibbyo View Post
Duma Key was a pretty good read. King's been on sort of an upswing lately. I'll be reading this.
It's not like he had any other direction to go, really.

I mean, From A Buick 8? Jesus.
post #47 of 221
I rather enjoyed From A Buick 8, though it certainly didn't need to be a full-length novel. It had an interesting Twilight Zone/Outer Limits feel to it.
post #48 of 221
I still think that the two best things he's written in the last dozen or so years had nothing supernatural about them at all: On Writing and the title story in Hearts in Atlantis.
post #49 of 221
A lot of people forget about On Writing but that book is great.

Am I alone in enjoying Cell? It was a quick, fun read.
post #50 of 221
This premise sounds exactly like the final act of Tommyknockers.

My SK grades:
Great Stephen King:

The Stand (Original cut)
Salem's Lot
Dead Zone
Night Shift
Cujo
On Writing
Danse Macabre

Good Stephen King
The Shining
Skeleton Crew
Different Seasons
Pet Semetary
Firestarter
Bag of Bones
The Gunslinger
The WasteLand
The Talisman

The Bad:

All the rest

Disclaimer; I exclude the Bachman Books because I've never read them
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